Electrical Rhythm: The Invention of the Cardiac Pacemaker

Before 1958, a diagnosis of heart block was a death sentence. The first pacemakers were massive, external machines that plugged into wall outlets, tethering patients to a bed. Everything changed when Wilson Greatbatch, an engineer looking for a way to record heart sounds, accidentally installed the wrong resistor and created a device that generated a steady pulse. This book chronicles the high-s...